The Missing Peace

We have a missing peace to our puzzle of life. I believe we first need to define a few things.

Anxiety: is the preoccupation with thoughts and feelings of what could happen, what might happen, it happened to someone else, so it will happen to me? What will I do? These thoughts take over our minds and eventually our physical bodies and manifest in racing heart, sleepless nights, loss of appetites, rising blood pressure, anger, physical symptoms and more. Until we are paralyzed and are not living a full life.

Fear: is the response to a legitimate threat or eminent danger. This is real. Not imagined.

We all have thoughts, feelings and emotions. However, we can CHOOSE which ones to respond to. Yes, I said, we can CHOOSE which ones to respond to.

Statistics say that children and young adults today are experiencing the same level of anxiety and fear as psychiatric patients did back in the 1950’s. WOW. Why do you think this is? A few of my thoughts on this…

We are not teaching our children how to actually cope with anxiety and other health issues in their lives. Giving our children the tools for life skills is a must for all parents. This includes anxiety. Having a conscious conversation of what it actually is and what the triggers are.

1)Take away the triggers and add in information. Is the TV on in your house 24 hours a day? Turn it off. As adults we get to the point of “enough”. Our children do as well except they do not have the life experience to deal with it.

2) Disconnect from social media. This is a must for any child dealing with anxiety. Social media is a breeding ground for anxiety and negative self talk. Teach your children HOW to use it. Social media should be looked at for inspiration, education and sharing positive messages. It does serve a purpose on a different level of news but that is nothing that a young child needs to be concerned with right now. Those kinds of conversations should be conducted in your home with your values and boundaries in place.

3) What are you feeding them? Our food is no longer as nutritious as it was long ago. The meat and dairy is treated with hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals. These are then ingested by whom ever is eating it. These animals release cortisol and adrenaline into the blood stream before they are slaughtered. Those chemicals stay in the meat and the milk of the animal until it makes its way to your dinner table. Your body is trying to equal out its own hormones during puberty and adolescence. It doesn’t need hormones from the animals to deal with as well.

4) Teach them to address the source “head on”. They will become empowered once they have gone through it. Baby steps of course. Each adversity or fear can teach us a lot about life and ourselves. Be present and walk this journey with them side by side. This skill will serve them well in life.

5) Have a strong foundation. Having a strong spiritual foundation is important. I am NOT talking religion. I am speaking about a strength you can draw from in your time of need.
Speak to your children openly about anxiety and fear. All of their concerns should be an open forum of discussion.
Sustainably Yours,